With Enduring Heart
by skywalkersamidala
Summary: As soon as he walked out of the hangar and breathed in the clean Nabooian air and saw Varykino in the distance, Anakin felt tears spring to his eyes. Now, at last, he was home. Even if it was a more dangerous homecoming than he'd always imagined. (Odyssey AU)


**Given the fact that I took an entire class on the Odyssey (and Iliad & Aeneid) last fall, I'm astonished it took me this long to think of this Anidala AU :O I tried to honor the spirit of the original story while altering the specifics to fit the Star Wars universe and I'm pretty pleased with the results if I do say so myself! At the very least it was a fun exercise for me to do as a classics major and diehard Anidala shipper. But don't worry if you're not familiar with the Odyssey, you'll still be able to enjoy this fic!**

 **Just some quick explanatory notes: I cut it down from 20 years away (10 at war + 10 getting home) to 15 (8 at war + 7 getting home). Also I changed it so that the Clone Wars didn't start until after Luke and Leia were born, and Anakin was off fighting them in the Outer Rim for 8 whole years and had no contact with Padmé during that time (again, some parts of the original story don't work so well in a technologically advanced universe that allows you to easily communicate with people far away, so you'll have to suspend some disbelief). Overall the backstory isn't really fleshed out beyond what is specifically discussed in the fic, so just don't worry about it too much.**

 **If the Force seems to be helping Anakin and the twins out way too conveniently, that's because I was sort of going for the whole "godly protector" role of Athena in the original story with Odysseus and Telemachus. In general, if anything seems too convoluted or doesn't make sense it's probably because I had issues translating some aspect of the original story into the SW universe lmao anyway I hope you enjoy this!**

* * *

" _All too much with enduring heart she does wait for you there in your own palace"_ – _Odyssey Book XI_

* * *

"Mom, I had a dream," Luke said as he entered her office and shut the door behind him. "From the Force."

"What about?" Padmé asked with just a quick glance up from the document she was reading on her holopad.

"Dad's almost home."

Padmé froze. Slowly, she put the holopad down on her desk. "What?" she said at last.

"I saw him on a ship in hyperspace, coming to find us," Luke said earnestly. "And Leia told me she had the _exact same dream,_ it must be the Force telling us—"

Padmé cut him off with a sigh, shaking her head. "Luke, I'm sure it's just a coincidence," she said softly. "After all this time, there's no reason to believe—"

"You're the one who's always insisted he's still alive!" Luke said, scowling at her. "All those stories you've told us about him, and every time someone said he must be dead by now you'd say no, he wasn't, because you would've felt it if he'd died."

"I know." Padmé reached out and took his hand. "But it's been fifteen years since we last saw him. Yes, Obi-Wan told us he was alive when the war ended, but how could it take him seven years to make it home from the Outer Rim? And no one has seen or heard from him in all that time. I want to keep believing, but I just…" Padmé shut her eyes, willing tears away. "I'm losing hope."

Luke angrily jerked his hand out of her grasp. "Well, I've got enough hope for the both of us," he said. "So does Leia. He _will_ come back."

And he stormed out of the room, leaving Padmé to put her head in her hands and allow her tears to fall freely.

Anakin had been called away to fight in the Clone Wars fifteen years ago, when Luke and Leia were only a few months old. Padmé had known the war wouldn't end quickly, had known it might be years before she'd see him again, but she never could have anticipated the way he and the entire 501st had just vanished without a trace _after_ the war was over.

So Padmé had waited, looking hopefully out the window every day for her husband's ship. Then every week. Every month. A couple times a year. Until eventually she stopped looking. She wasn't Force sensitive, but nevertheless she'd always been confident that she would've felt Anakin's death _somehow._ But in more recent years, she'd come to bitterly think that perhaps she'd been no more than a naïve, stupid girl who'd foolishly believed in love having magical powers. Perhaps Anakin had been dead for seven years after all, and she'd gotten her own—and even worse, her children's—hopes up for nothing.

And yet, part of her still stubbornly refused to accept that Anakin was dead. He had told her, all those years ago, that he would return, and deep down Padmé (foolishly?) believed that he would. Especially now, when they needed him more than ever…

* * *

Anakin was out of the starfighter practically before it had come to a halt. He raced onto the veranda and, upon seeing that nobody was there, hurried towards the main rooms of Padmé's Coruscant apartment.

But nobody was there either. In fact, the whole place looked like no one had set foot in it for quite some time. "Padmé?" Anakin called. He was met with silence. "Padmé? Luke? Leia? Is anybody here?"

Still, there wasn't a sound other than his own breathing. Frowning, Anakin proceeded to scour the entire apartment from top to bottom. He could find no clues of where his family was. Normally he would merely assume he'd guessed wrong and they were on Naboo—as Naboo's senator, Padmé split her time equally between the two planets—but the layer of dust over everything was troubling. Had Padmé retired as senator and left this apartment for good? But in that case, surely her replacement would have taken over the apartment and used it recently. Same thing if Padmé was still senator but had sold the apartment to a new owner.

Had something happened to her? Was there something keeping her from coming to Coruscant? Anakin went cold all over as the thought occurred. If he had escaped from hell after seven years only to come home and find his family missing or in danger—

No, there had to be a logical explanation, Anakin told himself firmly. And surely _someone_ on this planet would know what it was.

Anakin went back to the landing pad and got back in his starfighter, then flew over to the Jedi Temple.

He flagged down the first person he saw, a young Twi'lek Padawan. "Hello, is Master Kenobi here?" he asked.

"Yes, I believe so." She looked curiously at him. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

"I'm Anakin Skywalker," he said, suddenly reminded of how long he had been gone. This Padawan hadn't even been born when he'd left Coruscant.

She gasped. "General Skywalker? Everyone said you were dead!"

Anakin gave her a slightly sad smile. "Well, here I am," he said. "Could you take me to Master Kenobi, please?"

"Of course, General, right this way."

She escorted him to Obi-Wan's quarters; this, at least, was still the same. Anakin had been half wondering if Obi-Wan would have moved rooms or something by now. Anakin thanked the Padawan, who nodded at him and gave him one last awestruck look before scampering off.

Anakin took a deep breath and knocked on the door. It opened a minute later to reveal Obi-Wan.

His former master stared at him as if he'd seen a ghost, his face growing paler by the second. Anakin managed a hesitant smile. "Hi. Not dead."

Obi-Wan just gaped at him for another moment, and then without a word he reached out and enveloped him in a tight hug. Anakin hugged him back, feeling the knot of anxiety in the pit of his stomach start to loosen a little. Obi-Wan would know where Padmé and the twins were. He would know what to do. He always did.

"Anakin, what—?" Obi-Wan said after they'd let go of each other, seeming to struggle to even find any words. "How—?"

"I'll explain everything," Anakin said. "Can I come in?"

"Oh." Obi-Wan glanced around, as if just realizing they were still standing out in the corridor. "Yes, of course."

They went inside and Obi-Wan shut the door, then went to sit on the uncomfortable pallet the Jedi called a bed. Anakin, meanwhile, started pacing up and down the room as he began his story.

"You remember they sent me and the 501st to Mustafar to deal with the rest of the Separatist leaders gathered there," Anakin said.

Obi-Wan nodded. "That was the last anyone saw of you."

"Because it was a trap," Anakin said hollowly. "The Separatist leaders weren't there, but Palpatine—Sidious—was. He slaughtered my men. Every single one of them." Anakin paused and swallowed past the lump in his throat; even after seven years, recalling the deaths of his men, his comrades, his friends, was agonizing.

"How did you escape?" Obi-Wan asked, looking grim.

"That's the thing. I didn't escape, because Palpatine never wanted me dead. He wanted to capture me. That's why he set the trap on Mustafar and killed all the men I'd brought with me," Anakin said. "Dooku was dead and Palpatine had been exposed as a Sith Lord. He knew it was just about over for him, so in a last-ditch attempt at saving himself, he tried to make me his apprentice. He thought that with my power on his side, he could take over the Republic for good."

Anakin continued to pace as painful memories from the past seven years washed over him. "He held me captive on Mustafar for seven years," he said quietly. "He did everything he could to try to push me over to the Dark Side, but I resisted him. He manipulated me, tortured me…most days I thought it would just be easier to give in, but then I would think of Padmé and the twins. And I knew I had to stay strong, for them. And if Palpatine killed me, so what? It would be better for my family for me to be dead than a Sith."

Anakin realized his voice was shaking, and he quickly cleared his throat and took a moment to compose himself. Obi-Wan was looking at him with sadness, but also pride. "You resisted the Dark Side for seven years as the hostage of a powerful Sith Lord," he said. "Anakin, that is truly a remarkable accomplishment. I daresay even some of us on the Council would have had difficulty doing so."

That was because nobody on the Council had attachments or loved ones to keep them anchored to the light, to life, to all that was good in the world. Anakin was sorely tempted to say so, but he bit his tongue and decided to continue with his story. The last thing he wanted was to get into an argument with Obi-Wan right now.

"Eventually, I came up with a plan," Anakin said. "It was just the two of us on Mustafar, so I knew if I could only manage to overpower Palpatine, I could escape. So I decided to trick him into thinking I was actually falling to the Dark Side and becoming genuinely loyal to him. It took a long time. Years. But finally I saw my chance. He'd been allowing me more and more freedom as he thought I was growing more obedient, so I snuck out of my room one night and killed him in his sleep. Then I stole his ship and came here."

"Palpatine is dead?" Obi-Wan demanded, looking shocked. "We've been searching for him for years with no luck."

"Yes," Anakin said with a feeling of grim satisfaction. "I killed him myself. Now, at last, the war is finally over."

"Well…not entirely," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid things haven't been going as smoothly for the past seven years as we might have hoped," Obi-Wan said. "I knew you hadn't dealt with the rest of the Separatist leaders, though I didn't know why, because they've been repeatedly cropping up to cause more trouble. Some have still evaded capture. Including Nute Gunray."

Anakin scowled at the mention of the Trade Federation leader who'd tried to kill Padmé more than once in the past. "What's he up to?"

Obi-Wan sighed. "I'm sorry to say it, but…the Trade Federation has blockaded Naboo again. And they're refusing to leave."

" _What?"_

"They invaded two years ago and killed the queen," Obi-Wan said gravely. "They've been holding the planet ever since. No one can go in or out. There have been a few attempts among the Naboo to overthrow them, I've heard, but none strong enough to succeed. And the Republic has chosen not to get involved because the last thing it wants is to get embroiled in another civil war."

Anakin heard all this as if he was standing at the end of a long tunnel, horror washing over him. "And what about my family?" he asked, his voice trembling. "What's happened to them?"

Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. "I believe they're still alive, because Nute Gunray wouldn't have missed the opportunity to gloat publicly about it if he'd assassinated Padmé once and for all," he said. "But no one has heard from her or the twins in two years."

* * *

"Dad's on Coruscant, I know it," Luke said. "Even though Mom won't believe it."

Leia nodded. "I agree. We've both dreamed about it for three nights in a row, it _must_ be the Force trying to tell us something," she said.

"We have to get to him and explain what's happening on Naboo," Luke said; they were alone in his bedroom at Varykino, but still speaking very quietly so there was no chance of the battle droids patrolling the corridors hearing them. "We need his help."

Leia looked uncertain. "What makes you think he'd be able to help?" she asked. "If not even the Republic could—"

"The Republic couldn't help because it chose not to," Luke said. "But if we can sneak Dad in here, the Federation won't stand a chance."

"He's only one person, Luke."

"Mom always said he was the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy," Luke said stubbornly. "And she's great with a blaster, and you and I can hold our own in a fight too. If all four of us were together, we could take them all."

"I suppose it's better than doing nothing," Leia conceded. "But how will _we_ get off Naboo, let alone smuggle Dad back in?"

Luke smiled. "We'll use the Force."

Leia rolled her eyes. "That's not how the Force works."

Dinner that night was unpleasant as always, seeing as the twins, Padmé, and Shmi were forced to eat with Nute Gunray and the rest of the Trade Federation leaders. "Senator, how is the treaty coming along?" Gunray asked.

"Still proving difficult," Padmé replied pleasantly. "There are simply so many details to take into consideration and so many complicated issues that must be resolved delicately. I fear it will take me quite a while longer before it's completed."

Luke took a sip of his water to hide a grin. Padmé had suggested that she personally draw up Naboo's terms of surrender to the Federation, insisting that Gunray and the others would have much better things to do with their time than all that paperwork, and they'd agreed eagerly. And foolishly, seeing as Luke knew for a fact that every night Padmé deleted all the work on the treaty she'd done that day in hopes of delaying Naboo's official surrender ever further. Thus far, the Federation had, quite stupidly, failed to notice anything even though she'd been doing it for two years.

Luke and Leia had secretly instructed the handmaidens earlier that day to ply the Federation leaders with much more wine than usual, and by midnight they'd all fallen into slumbers so deep the entire planet could probably blow up without them waking. Careful to avoid the patrolling battle droids, the twins snuck out to Varykino's small ship docking area, which was currently at full capacity with a dozen Federation ships.

Taking care to cloak their presence in the Force, Luke and Leia got onto their mother's chrome ship and took off. They held their breath as they exited Naboo's atmosphere, but they didn't get any trouble from the battle droids in Theed who were supposedly watching Naboo's airspace to make sure there were no unauthorized landings or departures.

"Maybe they figure they don't need to watch Varykino so closely since all their leaders are stationed there," Leia suggested after they'd successfully punched in Coruscant's coordinates and jumped to hyperspace. "They probably think Nute Gunray isn't stupid enough to let us or Mom escape right under his nose."

"Joke's on them," Luke said smugly. "See? I told you this _is_ how the Force works."

"That was way easier than I expected," Leia admitted.

They were quiet for a minute, and then Luke said, "Do you think we should've told Mom where we were going?"

Leia shook her head. "No, she would only worry. Or try to prevent us from going."

"But won't she worry more when she wakes up tomorrow and we're gone?"

Leia felt a flash of guilt at the thought. "Well, the Federation won't be happy when they realize we're gone, so it's safer for her if she truly doesn't know where we went," she said, trying to reassure herself as much as Luke. "We're protecting her by not telling her."

"I suppose," Luke said rather doubtfully.

They used the long trip to finalize their plan, which was rather lacking on details. They realized they didn't actually have any idea _where_ on the gigantic planet Anakin was, so they decided to stop at the Jedi Temple first. "If anyone might have seen him already, it's Obi-Wan," Luke reasoned, and Leia nodded in agreement.

* * *

"What do you mean, _gone?"_ Shmi asked, looking shocked.

"I mean, I've searched all over the house and there's no sign of them. They must have snuck off somewhere during the night," Padmé said, a knot of fear in her stomach. "Did they say anything to you?"

"No, not at all. How could they even have gotten off-world with the blockade?"

"I don't know. Unless—unless they _didn't,"_ Padmé said, new terror dawning with the thought. "What if they tried to escape and got shot down?"

Shmi laid a soothing hand on her arm. "I'm sure it's nothing like that," she said. "You'd know if harm had come to them."

"I doubt it, I'm not Force sensitive."

"But you _are_ a mother," Shmi said. "And in addition to regular motherly intuition, I've always believed that carrying a Force sensitive child leaves you with a permanent connection to them even after they're born, even if you're not Force sensitive yourself. How else could I say with such confidence that Anakin is still alive?"

Padmé closed her eyes and tried to search her feelings (whatever that meant) the way Anakin had always talked of doing. Indeed, some part of her was certain that Luke and Leia weren't in any danger, though she couldn't explain why. "Maybe you're right," she said. "But where would they have gone? And why wouldn't they have told me?"

Shmi shook her head helplessly. "As for that, I don't know."

Padmé started pacing around Shmi's bedroom, which she had burst inside, waking her up, as soon as she'd established that Luke and Leia were nowhere to be seen. "We can't let the Federation figure out they're gone, they'll be furious," she said in a low voice. "At breakfast, we'll wait and see if they seem to know anything about their disappearance. And if not, we'll say…we'll say they're both sick and will be resting in their rooms alone for the foreseeable future."

"Yes, that might work," Shmi agreed. "Perhaps we can ask the handmaidens to bring food up there periodically to make it look like they really are in their bedrooms."

"Good idea." Padmé sunk down on the bed and put her head in her hands. "I've already lost Anakin," she said, her voice slightly muffled. "I can't lose them too. I just can't."

Shmi reached over and squeezed her shoulder. "You haven't lost any of them," she said firmly. "They'll be home soon enough. All three of them."

Padmé sighed. "I hope you're right."

At breakfast, to her relief none of the Federation leaders said anything about Luke and Leia's absence. In fact, no one seemed to notice until halfway through the meal, at which point Nute Gunray asked if they had overslept. "I'm afraid both of them are feeling quite ill this morning," Padmé said. "They're resting now, and I told them it would be best if they stayed in their rooms until they're feeling better in case it's a contagious illness."

Fortunately, Gunray and the rest of them seemed too repulsed by the prospect of catching a human illness to press the matter any further.

That afternoon, Padmé was alone in her office "working on the treaty," though her mind was parsecs away. She stood up from her desk and wandered over to look out the window. She had always loved the view from her office at Varykino; it was one of the best in the entire house, overlooking the lake and the balcony where she and Anakin had married. But it gave her no joy these days, not when she was a captive in her own home.

And especially not today, seeing as her children were now missing in addition to her husband. Padmé reached up to fiddle with the japor snippet necklace Anakin had made for her all those years ago. She had worn it every day since he'd left for the front lines fifteen years ago as a comfort and reminder of him, though it had felt more and more insufficient as the years had passed.

 _Come home to me,_ she thought as she gazed unseeingly out the window. _All of you. Please. Come home._

* * *

Seeing as he was technically no longer a Jedi—he had resigned from the Order just before the twins were born, but had still offered his aid in the Clone Wars shortly thereafter—Anakin left the Temple to spend the night at Padmé's apartment. But its eerie emptiness was unsettling, and he slept restlessly.

He dreamed of a teenage boy and girl on a starship flying through hyperspace, and when he woke for good in the morning Anakin was sure they were Luke and Leia. But he didn't know why he was so convinced; after all, he hadn't seen them since they were infants. He thought that perhaps it was a Force vision, but he wasn't sure what it meant or why the Force was showing it to him.

When Anakin returned to the Temple, there was a visitor waiting for him in Obi-Wan's room. "Skyguy!"

Anakin had barely even registered that Ahsoka was there before she was throwing her arms around him. "You're really alive!" she cried. "I could hardly believe it when Obi-Wan commed me last night, I thought he must be lying—"

Anakin chuckled and hugged her tight, his heart swelling. "I'm really alive," he said. "I missed you, Snips."

"I missed you too." Finally she let go of him. "What happened to you? Obi-Wan gave me a brief summary yesterday, but…"

"Before we get into that, what have you been up to?" Anakin asked. Like him, Ahsoka had left the Order before the war but had joined up with the Jedi and the clones to help fight.

She gave him a quick account of her work over the past seven years in helping the clones assimilate into the postwar society, and then Anakin told her the same story he'd told Obi-Wan the day before. After that he pressed her for information about the situation on Naboo, but she didn't know any more than Obi-Wan did.

They'd been discussing Naboo for twenty minutes when a knock sounded on the door. Obi-Wan went to answer it and gasped when he saw who it was. "How did you get off Naboo?" he asked.

Anakin, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, immediately bolted to his feet as the Force started humming around him, alerting him as to who had arrived. His heart pounded as he craned his neck to try and see over Obi-Wan, who was blocking the doorway.

"Surprisingly easily," said a girl's voice. "We got the Federation leaders drunk and used Force-cloaking to sneak out after they were asleep."

Obi-Wan laughed. "You truly are your parents' children," he said fondly. Then he cleared his throat and glanced back at Anakin, a smile growing on his face. "Speaking of, there's someone here you should meet."

Finally he stood aside, and Anakin felt all the breath get knocked out of him as he beheld the newcomers. They looked about fifteen or sixteen, both clad in dark tunics and leggings, probably to assist with the sneaking around they'd just mentioned. The boy had tousled sandy hair and bright blue eyes and something of his mother's softness in his face, whereas the girl had brown eyes and dark hair in a complex braided updo and her father's nose.

With just one look at them, Anakin knew. How silly he had been, all these years, to worry he might not recognize them when he finally returned home. "Luke," he breathed. "Leia."

They both gaped at him for another minute, and then they were yelling "Dad!" and shooting across the room into his arms. Anakin clutched them to him so tightly he was probably crushing their lungs, but they didn't say a word of protest, only held on to him even tighter as all three of them wept and wept, not even noticing Obi-Wan and Ahsoka discreetly slip out into the corridor to give them privacy.

"All right, let me look at you," Anakin said finally, pulling back to examine their tearstained, beaming faces. "Oh, you both look so much like your mother."

"She always says we look like you," Luke said, making Anakin laugh.

He pressed a tender kiss to the tops of their heads, still refusing to let go of them. "You have no idea how much I've missed you," he said in a choked voice. "I've thought about you every single day for fifteen years. Every single day."

"We missed you too," Leia said, looking up at him almost a little shyly. "Mom always told us stories about you, but…it wasn't the same."

Anakin's heart was breaking. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I was never there for you, you—you never even knew me, and now you're all grown up and I never—"

"It's okay, Dad. Really," Luke said while Leia nodded. "You're here now. We always knew you would come back."

Anakin sniffled and hugged them again. "This is the happiest moment of my life," he whispered. "Well, tied with the moment you were born." Both twins let out a watery chuckle.

It was several tearful minutes before Obi-Wan and Ahsoka finally returned, at which point lots of questions were thrown around between all five of them until everyone felt satisfied that they'd been caught up on everyone else's stories. Well, Anakin hadn't even begun to catch up on the past fifteen years of the twins' lives, but he at least heard about what had led them to come to Coruscant and how they had escaped Naboo.

"You shouldn't have snuck off without telling your mother," Anakin said sternly. "She'll be worried sick."

"I know, but…if we'd told her ahead of time, she would never have let us go," Leia said. "Isn't it better to ask forgiveness than permission?"

"Anakin, I hope you know that anything you're about to say in response to that will mark you as the greatest of hypocrites," Obi-Wan said, and Anakin grinned sheepishly.

Then he told the twins about what had happened to him after the war, but his parental instincts, so long dormant, kicked in and made him censor it a bit compared to what he'd told Obi-Wan and Ahsoka; he didn't want to frighten or upset them.

"So…you've all kept safe during the Federation invasion?" Anakin asked anxiously when he'd finished his tale.

"Yes," said Leia. "It's not exactly fun having them in our home, but we've never been hurt or anything."

"Thank the Force," Anakin murmured. "How has your mom been?"

The twins exchanged a look and a shrug. "Pretty good," Luke said. "She misses you, obviously. But she always knew you'd come back and she stayed optimistic. At least until recently…"

"I think, with the invasion and everything…the past two years have been especially hard for her. And she's losing hope," Leia said softly. "That's why we need you, Dad. You have to come back with us and help us fight the Federation and kick them out for good."

"I would love to, but I don't know how effective _I'll_ be against their entire army," Anakin said dryly. "Obi-Wan told me the Republic doesn't want to interfere."

Leia scowled. "Yeah. Kriffing _cowards."_ Anakin couldn't help but laugh, and she raised an eyebrow. "Not going to yell at me for language?"

"Oh. Should I? You're almost an adult, you can curse if you want."

"Mom won't like that stance," she said, grinning, and Anakin laughed again.

"Anyway," Luke said, "you won't have to fight their _whole_ army. All the leaders are at Varykino with fifty or so battle droids, and their command ship that controls all the battle droids on the rest of the planet is stationed just outside Naboo's atmosphere—"

"—so if we take out the leaders too quickly for them to summon the rest of the army, we can go to the command ship and deactivate the whole army," Leia finished. "It'll be easy. The only reason we and Mom haven't done it already is because they searched Varykino top to bottom when they first arrived and confiscated all our weapons, and they've been watching us too closely for us to sneak them back."

"It's definitely a gamble…" Anakin said thoughtfully as he considered the plan.

"The three of us have faced worse odds and come out on top," Ahsoka reminded him, and Obi-Wan hummed in agreement.

"You mean you're both going to help?" Anakin asked.

"Of course we are," Obi-Wan said. "We've wanted to help, but didn't know what good the two of us could do by ourselves."

"And now that there's four of us you think it'll go that much better?" Anakin said. He, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Padmé were some of the best fighters he knew, but they would be severely outnumbered.

"Six of us," Luke piped up. "Me and Leia will help too."

Anakin frowned at him. "Absolutely not. It's dangerous, and you and Leia are too young."

"Mom's told us about the first invasion of Naboo," Leia said. "The two of you were even younger than we are now and you fought in the battle!"

"Mom was obligated to fight because she was the queen of Naboo, and I was supposed to stay hidden and only ended up in the thick of things accidentally. It's a miracle I didn't get myself killed," Anakin said, though privately he admitted she made a good point. "I've just got you back, I'm not about to let you charge headfirst into danger and risk losing you again."

"Well, as the children of Naboo's senator, don't we also have an obligation to fight to protect our planet? And Leia's right, we're _not_ too young," Luke said stubbornly. "We're almost adults, you said so yourself. And we're both good with blasters, we've practiced for years—"

"Practicing with targets isn't the same as a real combat situation against people who are trying to kill you! I can't allow it. You'll come back to Naboo with us, but you're going to find someplace safe to hide until the fighting's over."

Leia glared at him, suddenly looking uncannily like Padmé. "It's our home too. We want to help take it back," she said. "And you'll need us. Four against sixty isn't good odds, but six against sixty—"

"Is hardly much better." Anakin sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn't deny that any additional fighters they could get would be helpful, but he also couldn't allow Luke and Leia to put themselves into such danger. "We'll discuss this later. For now, let's just work out our plan for how we're going to get to Naboo and inside Varykino without alerting suspicion."

"You, me, and Obi-Wan should probably wear some kind of disguise or something," Ahsoka said. "If anyone in the Trade Federation recognizes three Jedi—former Jedi, whatever—sneaking into Varykino, we'll be in big trouble. We need to keep the element of surprise on our side."

"Good idea," Anakin said. "Let's see…the simpler disguise the better, I say. Beggars, maybe? We can put on some rags and scuff up our appearances, put some dirt on our faces or something."

"You really think that would fool them?" Obi-Wan said skeptically.

"Speaking from experience, people don't tend to spare a second glance for beggars or slaves," Anakin said rather bitterly. "I think we'd be able to slip under the radar until it's time for our attack."

The others agreed it was a decent enough disguise, and they spent another few hours figuring out their whole plan. Like any good plan, it was very simple but with about a hundred chances for things to go horribly wrong. "This takes me back to the old days," Obi-Wan said, making Anakin and Ahsoka laugh.

The next morning, they all boarded Luke and Leia's ship and set a course for Naboo, figuring that there was no point in delaying any further. They were intending to sneak onto Naboo the same way the twins had snuck off: carefully. Obi-Wan kept muttering to himself that it was a horrible idea and they would surely be shot down the second they entered the atmosphere, but Anakin was weirdly confident. He could sense, somehow, that the Force was on their side and would help them with everything they needed. After all, he _was_ the Force's child.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka remained in the cockpit keeping an eye on the navigation, leaving Anakin and the twins lounging around in the back of the ship. Anakin spent the flight getting to know his children, the smile hardly leaving his face the whole time. Luke and Leia were even more wonderful than he could have imagined. And yet the reunion was bittersweet, as Anakin was all too aware that he'd missed out on their childhoods, missed out on raising them alongside Padmé. The twins kept insisting it didn't matter now that he was home for good, but Anakin couldn't help but feel sad for that part of their lives he would never get back.

And for Padmé, who had had to raise two children on her own for the majority of their lives. "I guess it must've been kinda tough for her," Luke admitted. "We caused an awful lot of trouble when we were little."

"And clearly you still do," Anakin said, making them grin mischievously.

"Mom's going to be so excited to see you," Leia said. "I can't _wait_ to see the look on her face when we come charging in there!"

"You mean, when Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and I come charging in there while you two wait safely on the ship."

"Sure, Dad."

Anakin shook his head, trying to look stern though he couldn't help but smile a little. They really did remind him of Padmé, always willing to run headfirst into danger to save somebody else without sparing a thought for their own safety. "So…you really think she'll be happy to see me?" Anakin said next, his smile fading. "I've been gone so long…I would understand if she's—if she's moved on, I wouldn't expect her to—"

"Of course she hasn't moved on. She loves _you,_ Dad!" Luke exclaimed.

"Then…she hasn't been seeing other people in the meantime?" Anakin asked, hardly daring to hope.

"Not one," Leia said. "I remember she told me once that even if you never came home, she still wouldn't remarry because you're the only person she could ever love like that."

Anakin cleared his throat and quickly busied himself with his lightsaber for a moment so they wouldn't see the tears in his eyes.

Luke watched curiously as he moved away and ignited the lightsaber, giving it a few practice swings to make sure it was in good working order for the fight ahead. "Can I hold it for a minute?" he said hopefully.

Anakin smiled. "Sure." He handed it over and watched as Luke practiced with it for a little while. "You've got great form," Anakin said proudly. "Have you been training at all?"

"Yeah, we used to train with Obi-Wan whenever Mom had to be on Coruscant for the Senate," Luke said. "Though it's been a couple years since we've been stuck on Naboo. But he taught us all about the Force and let us practice with his lightsaber. Ahsoka too, when she was around."

Anakin looked over at Leia, who was watching the exchange but not seeming to have any desire to take part. "What about you, Leia, have you trained too?"

She nodded. "Obi-Wan said I had to learn the basics, and Mom agreed," she said. "But I never was that interested. I prefer blasters. And I'd rather be a senator than a Jedi."

"Force knows why," Luke said. "You'd really rather sit around in a room and listen to people argue about trade all day than be a _Jedi?"_

"I don't know what Obi-Wan's been telling you, but being a Jedi during peacetime isn't all that exciting," Anakin said, grinning. "Lots of meditation."

Luke laughed and gave the lightsaber back, and Anakin strapped it onto his belt. "Is that why you left?"

"No," said Anakin. "I left because the Jedi rule against attachments meant I had to choose between being a Jedi and being a husband and father. For me, the choice was easy."

The twins smiled. "Luke won't _really_ be able to be a Jedi anyway," Leia said. "Since he hasn't been training with the Order since he was a baby."

"Yeah, I know," Luke said, looking downcast.

"Well, you can be like me and Ahsoka," Anakin said. _"Technically_ we're not Jedi anymore, but we've still got our Force powers and our lightsabers. You can do lots of good as a Force-user even if you're not officially a member of the Jedi Order."

That made Luke cheer up. "Dad, sometime…can you take me to pick out a kyber crystal and teach me how to make my own lightsaber?" he said, looking nervous and hopeful all at once. "Obi-Wan offered to take us, but I said I wanted to wait until you could do it."

Anakin beamed at him, feeling choked up all of a sudden. "I would love to," he said, making Luke beam too. "You'd be welcome to join us, Leia, even if you prefer blasters."

"I suppose having a lightsaber of my own couldn't _hurt,"_ she said, and they all laughed.

Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka put on their disguises as they neared Naboo, and each of them carefully hid their lightsabers and blasters on their person; Anakin was smuggling in a blaster to give to Padmé once the fighting started, and they'd figured it couldn't hurt for Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to bring extras too. Anakin's heart was pounding as they landed, but once again, they didn't have any trouble. It was as if the Federation scanners had simply skipped right over their ship. Anakin sent a quick prayer of thanks to the Force.

After making sure the hangar at Varykino was completely deserted, they all disembarked. "You two wait here in the hangar," Anakin told the twins. "Find someplace to hide in case any of the Federation leaders come here looking for a ship to escape. And if they do, don't jump out and attack them, just let them go."

They both heaved identical sighs of frustration. "Fine," said Luke sullenly, while Leia just scowled.

"Promise me that you'll stay safe."

"I promise."

"Both of you."

"I promise," Leia muttered.

"Good." Anakin gave them both a quick hug and kiss. "Hopefully this won't take too long. We'll come find you when everything's over."

And he hurried off with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. The thought of him not making it back to Luke and Leia hardly crossed his mind. He _would_ oust the Federation and live to tell the tale and finally go back to the peaceful life with his family he'd been waiting fifteen years for. Anything else simply wasn't an option.

As soon as he walked out of the hangar and breathed in the clean Nabooian air and saw Varykino in the distance, Anakin felt tears spring to his eyes. Now, at last, he was home. Even if it was a more dangerous homecoming than he'd always imagined.

The three of them went right up to the house's main entrance; they'd decided to keep their cover simple, posing as beggars looking for a meal. With any luck, they'd be invited inside. Anakin knew Padmé would never turn away someone in need, but he just wasn't sure how much authority she still had in her own home with the Federation running everything and holding her hostage.

Indeed, they were stopped in front of the door by a pair of battle droids. "Who are you?" one of them asked suspiciously.

"We're just harmless beggars," Anakin said. "Would you be kind enough to allow us inside for dinner?"

The droids looked at each other, but then the second one said, "No can do. Get out of here."

"Please, if you have any compassion—"

"What's all this?"

The doors were opening. For a split second Anakin's heart leapt, but then he realized it was Sabé, not Padmé. He met her gaze, and after a moment her eyes widened in shock as she recognized him. She opened her mouth, but Anakin gave her an imperceptible shake of his head, praying she'd understand not to acknowledge him.

"My lady, we hoped the inhabitants of this lovely home might spare us some food," Obi-Wan said. "If you had even scraps from the kitchen, we would be most grateful."

Fortunately, Sabé seemed to realize there was a scheme afoot and didn't let on that she knew who they really were. "Of course," she said. "Please, follow me."

And she led the three of them inside, ignoring the droids' complaints.

They walked in silence for a minute, but once they'd entered a corridor devoid of any battle droids, Anakin leaned forward slightly and said as quietly as he possibly could, "No one can know. Not even Padmé." As much as it pained him, they'd decided ahead of time it would be best to try and avoid Padmé until they began their ambush, just in case she was so overwhelmed by Anakin's return that she unthinkingly blew their covers. For Anakin's part, he doubted _he'd_ be able to control himself the moment he saw her again and had grudgingly agreed it might be wise for him not to get too close to her for the time being.

Sabé gave a tiny nod to show him she understood. Out loud, she said, "Dinner will be served shortly. You may wait here until I return to escort you to the dining room."

Anakin bowed his head and settled himself on a stool. "Thank you kindly, my lady."

She left, leaving them alone in what appeared to be a small storage area. "This is all going _too_ well," Obi-Wan said under his breath.

"Don't jinx it," Ahsoka replied.

Anakin, meanwhile, suddenly jumped off his stool and hurried over to the corner of the room. There was a large sheet covering something shiny, and Anakin pulled it off to reveal R2-D2. "Artoo!"

The droid gave no response, and Anakin realized he was powered down. Ahsoka came over to crouch down beside him, reaching out and briefly touching Artoo. "It looks like he's been powered down for ages," she said. "Look, there's cobwebs and dust all over him."

"Yeah…" Anakin felt a pang of sorrow as he looked at his old friend, broken down and abandoned. "I wonder what happened to him."

He rested his hand on Artoo, and as soon as he made contact, Artoo suddenly started powering up. His lights flashed a few times and he made some whirring noises, his dome rotating around as if he was observing his surroundings. As soon as he caught sight of Anakin, he let out a squeal that was somehow both exhausted and excited.

"Artoo, you're back!" Anakin cried, throwing his arms around him. "I missed you so much."

Artoo made a long series of beeps and chirps, expressing how much he'd missed Anakin and how glad he was too see him. "How long have you been powered down?" Anakin asked. _Beep._ "Five years? Why?"

Artoo's response made a lump form in his throat. "Oh, Artoo," he said. "Of course I was going to come back for you."

"Keep it down," Obi-Wan hissed. "You'll blow our cover."

"Artoo, we're here on a very secret mission," Anakin said. "So you have to pretend not to have any idea who we are, okay?" Affirmative beep. "In fact, maybe you'd better pretend to still be powered down too. Just for a little while, I promise. Everything will be back to normal soon."

When Sabé came back for them, Artoo was back under the sheet and dutifully pretending to be powered down. As she led them through the halls, Anakin tried not to behave like he'd been there before, but it was difficult when everything looked almost exactly as he remembered.

They were escorted into Varykino's large dining room, the one used for company, not the smaller one that Anakin and Padmé would use when they were alone. It was probably for the best; it would be easier for Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka to hide their faces in such a big room. Sabé, who apparently had thought along the same lines when setting up for dinner, brought them over to a separate table in the back corner of the room, rather than the main table where Padmé, Shmi, and the Federation leaders would be eating.

Anakin's heart ached as he saw his mother, looking so much older and more tired than she had the last time he'd seen her. His disappearance must have taken a heavy toll on her. He longed to call out to her or even just make eye contact, but he didn't dare, instead keeping his eyes on the table as Sabé poured them each a glass of wine.

"Sabé," Anakin said under his breath, leaning forward slightly in his chair so her form would block him from the other table's view. "There will come a point in the evening where I'll make eye contact with you and give you a nod. When that happens, find some reason for my mother to accompany you out of the dining room, and bring her somewhere safe on the other side of the house. Don't let her back here until one of us comes to find you."

"Understood," Sabé whispered back, and then she straightened up and moved on to fill Ahsoka's cup.

Once everyone else was seated, the doors opened again and Padmé walked in, moving to take her place at the head of the table. Anakin swore he stopped breathing. He couldn't help himself, he stared directly at her, drinking in the sight of her, awestruck and overwhelmed, like a desert wanderer who'd just spotted an oasis.

Even from a distance he could tell that she was fifteen years older now, no longer the twenty-seven-year-old wife of three years and brand-new mother he'd left behind, but she was somehow even more beautiful than he had remembered. Tears threatened to overpower him as he looked at her, and he dug the fingernails of his flesh hand into his palm, trying to distract himself with the pain so he wouldn't jump up from his seat and run across the room and sweep her into his arms.

"Pull yourself together," Obi-Wan said in a low voice, though his expression was sympathetic. "It's too soon to expose ourselves."

Anakin took a deep, shaky breath and nodded, forcing himself to look away from Padmé. Fortunately, she didn't seem to have spared the three of them any more than a passing glance.

But as the meal progressed, Anakin couldn't stop himself from sneaking looks over at her far more often than was probably wise. She wasn't at all her usual self; rather than animatedly taking part in conversation, she sat in silence as the Federation leaders talked amongst themselves, not saying a word unless she was directly addressed. She looked so tired and sad. Anakin wanted so badly to hold her close, to kiss away the worry lines on her forehead, to tell one of his terrible jokes that never failed to make her laugh. _Soon,_ he told himself firmly. They'd both waited fifteen years; they could wait a little bit longer.

Once the meal was winding down and the Federation leaders appeared sufficiently drunk, Anakin met Sabé's eyes and gave her a tiny nod. She promptly went over to where Shmi was sitting and leaned down to say something to her; whatever it was seemed to work, as Shmi stood and excused herself to the others before following Sabé out of the dining room.

Now the room was empty except for Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Padmé, and the Federation leaders. Perfect. The three "beggars" exchanged a look, and with a wave of their hands all the doors to the dining room were slamming shut.

Nute Gunray started at the noise. "What was that? Who closed the doors?"

In unison, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka jumped to their feet and ignited their lightsabers. "Your reign of terror ends now," Anakin said fiercely.

" _Jedi?!_ How did they get past the—"

He cut off as the three of them charged towards the main table, and the room descended into chaos. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka fell into combat against a pair of Federation leaders while Anakin ducked under a blaster bolt, searching for Padmé.

There she was, still frozen in her seat and white as a sheet as she stared at Anakin. "Padmé!" he called, pulling the blaster out from under his beggar's rags and tossing it to her. The movement seemed to startle her back to reality, and she quickly stood and reached up to catch the blaster as it came soaring over towards her.

As Anakin watched in astonishment and no small amount of admiration, she pointed the blaster right at Nute Gunray and pulled the trigger, a deadly red bolt shooting out rather than the blue bolt of a stun shot. It caught him in the chest and he crumpled to the ground, dead.

"That's for Naboo," Padmé said grimly, and she didn't spare him a second glance as she moved into the heart of the melee, Anakin following right behind her.

But their luck didn't hold out for long: moments later, the doors were being battered down and a swarm of battle droids came clanking into the room. Anakin pulled his lightsaber out of the last Federation leader's stomach and turned his attention towards the droids.

He found himself back-to-back with Padmé in the middle of the chaos, him holding out his lightsaber and her raising her blaster to take aim again. "Just like Geonosis," Anakin said, and as Padmé gave a huff of laughter, his heart felt oddly light for someone in the middle of a battle.

* * *

"I hate just _waiting_ here," Leia said, pacing up and down the hangar. "We have no way of knowing what's going on in there."

"They'll come get us soon," Luke said.

Leia stopped and swiveled around to face him, her expression determined. "They need our help," she said. "Four of them isn't enough, not against fifty battle droids. It would be easier for them if you and I went now to the command ship to deactivate the army, instead of them going to do it after the battle."

Luke got to his feet, half uncertain and half excited. "We promised Dad we'd stay here."

"Yeah…but he doesn't know how discipline works around here," Leia said, a sly glint coming into her eyes. "He won't ground us if we disobey him, and Mom can't ground us 'cause she's not the one we'd be disobeying."

Luke grinned. "I like the way you think."

They got back onto Padmé's ship and took off. Soon they were exiting the atmosphere, and the Federation command ship came looming into view. Luke piloted right towards it. "Let's show them what happens when you mess with our planet," Leia said as she left the cockpit to go command the ship's guns.

* * *

Anakin, Padmé, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka were in the middle of the room ringed by the remaining droids. The bodies of the Federation leaders were strewn across the floor along with a fair number of dismantled droids, but even so they were outnumbered.

All four of them seemed to come to the realization at the same time, and in unison they slowly lowered their weapons. "There's too many of them," Ahsoka said hollowly. "It's over."

The surrounding droids all raised their blasters and pointed them at them. Heart pounding, Anakin reached out to take Padmé's hand in his flesh one, closing his eyes and trying to focus on her touch as the last thing he would ever experience.

But then, suddenly, there was a sound like a machine shutting down. Dropping Padmé's hand, Anakin's eyes flew open again and he saw in astonishment that all the droids were powering down. "What—?"

"The twins," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head. "They must've gone to take out the command ship."

Padmé looked furious. "You sent my children to take out a droid command ship by themselves?!"

"We did not! We told them to stay put, but clearly they take after you two," Obi-Wan replied. "And as you'll remember, your husband once took out a droid command ship singlehandedly when he was about half their age."

It was then, now that the chaos had subsided, that Padmé seemed to fully register Anakin's sudden appearance and Anakin fully registered the fact that he was truly home with his wife again. He turned towards her, a broad smile growing on his face—

—and was met with the barrel of her blaster. "Hey!" he said. "Padmé, what are you—it's _me!_ Has it been so long that you don't recognize me anymore?"

"You certainly _look_ like my husband," she said, lowering her blaster but still eyeing him suspiciously. "But how do I know you're not an impostor?"

"What?!"

" _My_ Anakin once told me about a mission where Obi-Wan was injected with a serum that altered his face to look like a bounty hunter's," Padmé said calmly. "It's possible."

"This isn't like that, Padmé," Obi-Wan said quickly. "It's really him, of course it is."

"For years I've had people trying to get money or favors out of me in return for information they claimed to have about Anakin's whereabouts, and I was tricked more than once in the beginning. Forgive me for being on my guard."

"It _is_ me, Padmé, the real me," Anakin said rather desperately. "What else do you want me to—?" He trailed off as he noticed her reaching up to play with a necklace she wore around her neck. He leaned in for a closer look and smiled, a few tears welling up in his eyes. "The japor snippet. You've kept it all these years."

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Padmé said conversationally. "It was a gift from an artist I dated when I was young, Palo was his name—"

" _What?_ How could you even—? _"_ Anakin spluttered, too outraged to form a coherent sentence. _"I_ gave you that necklace! I made it for you with my bare hands, when we first met, I gave it to you on the way back from Tatooine and told you it would bring you good fortune! I won't let you give _Palo_ credit for—"

He stuttered to a halt, anger moving to bewilderment as Padmé threw her blaster aside, beaming at him. "Of course I remember! I'm sorry, Ani, I had to trick you into revealing something only the real Anakin would know," she said, tears swimming in her eyes. "But it _is_ you. It's really you."

" _Yes,"_ Anakin said, trying to sound exasperated but he was too overjoyed. "It's really me, Padmé."

And then at last, she was throwing herself into his arms and Anakin was holding her tight and picking her up and spinning her around and around in circles, both of them laughing and weeping. He set her back down on the ground and buried his face in her hair, inhaling the familiar, comforting scent of her. Anakin had dreamed of this moment every day for fifteen years, and yet it was still so much better than he could have ever imagined.

He drew back ever so slightly and let go of her, but only so that he could move his hands up to cup her face instead. For a moment Anakin simply looked at her, absorbing every detail of her face, which was older and yet still the same as the one he'd seen every night in his dreams, and then he was closing the distance between them again and kissing her.

Anakin kissed her both sweetly and desperately, celebrating their reunion while also trying to make up for all the time they'd missed, and Padmé kissed him back likewise. He was still crying, and so was she, and he could feel her smiling against his mouth, and he swore his heart had never felt so full.

Anakin wasn't sure if it had been a minute or an hour when he heard someone saying, "Ani? Is it really you?"

He looked over towards the door and saw that Shmi was standing there with Sabé, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka, the latter two apparently having left to fetch the former two without Anakin even noticing. "Mom," he said, and then she was in his arms, moving with remarkable speed for such an elderly woman.

"You're finally home," Shmi sobbed. "Oh, my darling Ani, I always knew you would come back."

Anakin hugged her tightly; she looked so frail, he was half afraid he would break her. "I'm home," he said. "I missed you so much."

Just when Anakin thought he couldn't get any happier, Luke and Leia were racing into the room, looking perfectly unharmed, and hurtling into their parents' and grandmother's arms. "That stunt you pulled with the command ship—" Anakin began, trying to sound stern.

"We couldn't let you have _all_ the fun," Leia said, and he and Padmé laughed despite themselves and hugged them tighter.

After many more minutes of tearful hugs all around, Padmé suggested they move into the sitting room. "Actually, I might go get cleaned up first," Anakin said, gesturing at his beggar's disguise. "I don't suppose any of my clothes are still here?"

"Of course they are, just where you left them," Padmé said, which made his heart swell. "Here, I'll take you there."

It wasn't really necessary, as Anakin remembered the way to their bedroom perfectly well, but it was nice to have a moment alone with Padmé. Anakin quickly washed the dirt from his face and the blood from his hands before changing into a simple tunic and leggings, noticing in surprise that it was a bit big on him; he must've lost weight during his years of captivity.

He emerged from the fresher to find Padmé waiting for him. They simply stood there and looked at each other for a minute, and then Anakin stepped closer and took her in his arms again, both of them letting out contented sighs at the wonderful familiarity of each other.

Anakin kissed her for a long moment, and then he started pressing gentle kisses to her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. "Before we head back…" he said, trailing off significantly.

"We…we shouldn't keep the others waiting," Padmé said, though she sounded quite reluctant. "We'll have plenty of time alone tonight."

With a disappointed huff, Anakin stepped away and instead took her hand in his flesh one. "Is that a promise?" he said, grinning, as they left the bedroom to rejoin the others.

Padmé smirked back. "Oh, absolutely."

Once in the sitting room, Anakin took a spot on one sofa and was immediately surrounded by his family so closely that in any other circumstances it would've been claustrophobic. He set about once again telling his tale of what had happened to him since the war; the twins, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka had heard it several times by now but insisted they didn't mind.

"How did you manage to do it?" Padmé asked, gently tracing the scar by his eye that hadn't been there the last time she'd seen him. "Resist the Dark Side for seven years?"

"It was because of you," Anakin said. "All of you. Every time I felt myself growing weak, starting to give up, I would think about you. And that reminded me I still had something to fight for. Something to live for. I told myself that I would be letting you down if I gave in to the Dark Side, that none of you would want anything to do with me if I was a Sith. You gave me the strength to resist."

Padmé didn't say anything in response, but she blinked back tears and leaned in to rest her head on his shoulder.

After Anakin had finished his tale and answered Padmé's and Shmi's many questions, a brief silence descended on the room. "Now that everything's in order here, Ahsoka and I ought to head back to Coruscant," Obi-Wan said.

Ahsoka nodded. "Yeah, we'll leave you guys alone to get reacquainted."

"Nonsense, you're both practically part of the family. Besides, several of our guest rooms have just opened up," Padmé said rather dryly. Then she sighed. "Someone remind me to add 'figure out what to do with the corpses in the dining room' to my to-do list."

"Well, if you're sure we wouldn't be imposing," Obi-Wan said as everyone chuckled.

The Skywalkers all assured him that they wouldn't be imposing at all, and the conversation resumed. Everyone talked for hours, catching each other up on their lives, getting to know each other, and just generally chatting. At last Shmi stood up with a yawn. "Forgive an old woman, but I'm exhausted," she said.

Padmé checked the time and jumped. "Stars above, I had no idea how late it was! Luke, Leia, you should've been in bed ages ago."

"Aw, come on, Mom, it's a special occasion," Luke said.

"Yeah, can't we stay up a little later?" Leia wheedled.

"Absolutely not. Bed, now."

"Dad?" Luke said hopefully.

Padmé rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. "I see, now that you're here they think they don't have to listen to me anymore."

Anakin laughed. "You heard your mother. It's been a long day," he told them. "And I'll still be here in the morning, I promise."

After a final round of hugs (and whining from Luke and Leia) everybody departed for bed until only Anakin and Padmé remained. He pulled her in for another kiss, this one quickly heating up as they were all too aware of their sudden privacy.

"Shall we go to bed too?" Padmé murmured against his lips.

" _Please,"_ Anakin said, rather more desperately than he'd intended.

Padmé smiled and got to her feet, then took his hand and tugged him down the hall towards their bedroom.

Afterwards, they lay in contented silence, Padmé curled up against his chest and Anakin with his arms protectively around her. "I can't believe you waited for me, all these years," Anakin said softly after a while. "You had no idea I was alive, you should've—should've gone out and met someone else instead of being lonely for so long—"

"I wasn't lonely, because I knew you were coming home," Padmé interrupted gently. "Maybe towards the end I lost a little hope, but even then, I never wanted anyone else, not even for a second. I love you, Anakin. More than anything."

Anakin tilted her chin up so he could kiss her tenderly, and even once he'd pulled back their foreheads were still resting together, their noses almost touching. "I love you too, so much," he said. "And I'm so sorry for everything I put you through."

Padmé reached up and rested her hand on his cheek, stroking his cheekbone with her thumb in a soothing gesture. "What I went through is nothing compared to what you had to go through, Ani. Besides, that's all in the past now," she said. "I think we've earned the right to be happy for every day for the rest of our lives."

Anakin chuckled. "You make a fair point."

He pulled her more snugly against him, resting his chin on top of her head and listening to her slow, steady breathing. "Part of me is afraid I'll wake up tomorrow and find out this has all been a dream," Padmé said a while later, after he'd thought she'd fallen asleep.

"I promise you, I'll still be here when you wake up. Tomorrow morning and all the mornings after that," Anakin said. "In fact, you'll probably get sick of me and start to miss the days you didn't have someone else in your bed stealing all the blankets and snoring."

"I doubt that," Padmé said, laughing. "I actually found it harder to fall asleep without your snoring."

"Then it looks like you're in for a good night's sleep."

"It does." She shifted her position slightly to get comfortable, then leaned up for one last peck on the lips. "Goodnight, my love."

"Goodnight, my angel."

Anakin drifted off not long afterwards, utterly worn out from the day's events. Now that he was finally home again with his wife in his arms, the rest of his family all just down the hall, now that at long last everything had finally been set right, Anakin slept better than he had in fifteen years.


End file.
